Jun 12, 2012
The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues. In this program, we have a three-way conversation with John Dolan, Christina McNeill, and Shannon Ritter, all employees of Penn State University who created an informal, unofficial podcast about the people behind-the-scenes at Penn State, called "The U Report." Their podcast won an Excellence in New Communications Award for Internal Communications in the Education and Academic category. You can read more about the winning Penn State entryon the SNCR website.
Producers of The U Report
John Dolan is the director of the Office of
Digital Media and Pedagogy for Penn State's College of the Liberal
Arts. In this role, he oversees the strategy for incorporating more
technology into teaching, learning and research in the College. He
is also responsible for the management of the robust social media
initiative for the College's undergraduate studies division. He has
made a number of conference presentations on social media and is in
the final stages of completing his dissertation on the impact of
the use of social media in the workplace.
Christina McNeill is drawn to web
communications because of the variety of skills (analytical,
strategic thinking, creative, technical) she must use to implement
solutions that help people. She currently works as a web developer
for the Office of Student Aid where she enjoys the challenge of
finding creative solutions for student aid professionals
communicating complicated information to their audience—parents and
students. She oversaw the launch of the latest OSA website while
implementing Plone CMS for staff. Christina has also worked at Penn
State Outreach, both as a speechwriter for the vice president and
as a developer and manager of the organization's intranet.
Christina is a proud veteran of both the U.S. Navy and the U.S.
Marine Corps. She, her husband, son, and two dogs live in
Bellefonte, Pa.
Shannon Ritter currently works as the
Coordinator of Auditions, Interviews, and Admissions for the Penn
State School of Theatre. In addition to working closely with
faculty and undergraduate admissions, she also coordinates the use
of social media within the School. Before coming to the School of
Theatre, Shannon worked as Social Networks Adviser for Penn State
World Campus, and spent five years in Undergraduate Admissions at
Penn State. Shannon is also co-founder of the Social Media
Constituent group with EDUCAUSE and presents regularly at national
conferences on the use of social media in higher education.
The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global
Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the
SNCR Advisory Board.The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays
over the next several months.
Subscribe to the RSS feed for
the SNCR podcast. 
Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.